Digital Marketing for the Small Business – The real why should I do it?

September 23, 2020

Digital Marketing for the Small Business – The real why should I do it?

Before you read this article, let’s set the reality table. The author is a small business owner with less than ten employees. He uses digital marketing for the majority of his advertising, and his marketing plan is integrated with social media and his website. And his attitude toward digital marketing a few years ago was negative and suspicious.

Does that sound like you?

If you are leaning toward ‘yes’, then let’s review the reasons he did such a 180 and now has energetically embraced digital marketing, and why you should strongly consider it.

Reason 1: What used to work is not working anymore – part one

Maybe you have tried printed ads, billboards, and even direct mail. If you have, you probably have noted that your return on investment is not what it used to be. Aside from some business where what they do or sell is still perfect for printed media, most businesses waste their advertising dollars on this method. Many have chucked it out the window entirely. Have you seen the weight loss program your yellow pages book is on? Some of it can be useful, but digital marketing is the thing today that works, if it is done right. Small businesses cannot afford to keep doing something poorly. We do not have the resources for it and we do not have the time to deal with it.

Reason 2: What used to work is not working anymore – part two

How many times have you heard “it’s all about relationships”? Thousands, right? And guess what? It is all about relationships. But we have to redefine our concept of what a relationship is. Traditionally, we relied on physical, social relationships to build a business. It was who you knew, and what they could do for you. That and business referrals. Or word of mouth. Again, all very valuable but now very hard to do. Why? The world has changed. Social media is now prevalent and people don’t physically interface like they used to in business social settings. Organizations built for facilitating business interfacing, more commonly known as business networking, are seeing less participation and less excitement in their meetings and events. Then, you see the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, which isolated people even more. Everything went even more electronic – buying, selling, networking, advertising, etc. And at the center of this new culture, digital marketing concepts, tools, and skills sits and waits to be exploited.

Reason 3: Digital Marketing is the Great Equalizer

Highly effective traditional marketing costs a lot of money. The big boys on the block have more money than you. They can afford the sales reps, the longstanding billboards, the glossy ads, and the imposing amount of direct mail. You cannot. You need a hero. Enter digital marketing. This hero can be as expensive as you say and still be effective. It can be as selective as you need and still hit the right target audience. It can even be used only when you say so. Let’s take billboards for a moment, and say that it costs $5000 plus $500 for production for a year’s exposure. You are told that 400,000 drivers will see your board. Sounds cheap per person, right? But, how many of them are your target audience. How many will disregard it after seeing it once? After all, it is not moving. It is not changing its message. Digital marketing is like a billboard except the message was shown to you because you were interested, and at some point, you may see it with a different message. It is moving because you saw it on one electronic platform, like Facebook, and the next time on Google. It is fresh, energetic, and inexpensive! You now have a means to compete with your bigger competition.

Reason 4: Digital Marketing is Inexpensive, maybe

The thing about digital marketing is this, you can wisely or unwisely spend your money. It is so easy to spend too. Used wisely, digital marketing is probably the least expense advertising cost out there. And here is another ringer. Digital marketing is often free! How would you like to reach 400,000 potential customers and not pay a cent? It can be done. A good digital marketer can utilize both the free and paid channels for you and get your brand recognized and your services investigated by interested prospects. However, you will have to pay the marketer something for his help. But it is a small price to pay.

Reason 5: Digital Marketing is Controllable

Back to the billboard example. Three months into the yearly contract you realize it is not working for you, or you really want to promote a new product or service that your current sign is not promoting. What do you do? Another board? More expense. What you want to do is to change the message dynamically. If the bill board is electronic and the vendor allows it, you can do that. But the $5k example is out the window. Try paying double or more for that. With digital marketing, changing the message, the target audience, the graphics, whatever, can be done quickly and cheaply.

The author wrestled with these marketing issues and came to these conclusions before going nuts over digital marketing and its ability to impact his business. The key element to remember is that you do not have to go it alone with Digital Marketing. There are a lot of skills involved to make the transition from what isn’t working anymore to Digital Marketing, but there are people out there that can do it with you. Find a good one and see how this marketing approach can help your business get noticed. After that, it is up to you.

A Quick Update from PTG About Our Services

July 8, 2025

I would like to use this issue of our periodic newsletter to make you aware of some of the changes PTG is making and how it can help your IT and web technology needs. It is a short read, because we are really busy implementing our new changes.

In our Web World…

We are developing and soon to release a separate website for our website marketing efforts. It is really sharp, with some nifty features that can be incorporated into your website. It is shows a lot of our work for different types of businesses, churches, health care and more.

In our Tech World…

We have revamped our MSP (managed services plan) to bring itemized clarity to our contractual IT support customers. All new MSP customers as of July 1 are this new quoting, contracting, and billing model. Existing MSP customers will be migrated as time permits.

In our Employee World…

One our long term employees, a senior technologist, retired June 30^th. Many of our customers will know who I am talking about, but we will keep his name confidential and call him “Bob”. Bob was with us for 20 of the 23 years we have been in business. He was critical to our success, and in light of that, we now have Bob on a consultancy contract, so we will not lose his expertise. So, if you happen to run into Bob, congratulate him on this new venture.

On the Horizon – the Horizon is upon us!…

We wrote about AI and its buzz in August 2024. We are here, in July 2025, to tell you that it has not gone away. At all. You are seeing it now predominantly in browsers, but it is also being actively integrated into business applications. It has a profound impact on our search engine and digital marketing efforts for our customers. So the tech changes continue, and we continue to evolve our services accordingly.

I hope you enjoyed this update, and as usual, we welcome you to connect with us for your technical and web IT needs. Stay cool!

Should I Choose a Local Website Development Company?

February 21, 2025

If you have been in business for even a short time, you have seen the emails and received the phone calls stating that such and such national SEO company can do wonderful things for you. They promise big results, number one Google rankings, and leads, leads, leads. But you may be wondering why you should pay big bucks for a national company to help your web presence locally. How can they do it? Is it worth it?

The simplest answer is this: generally, if you sell products nationally, a national web development company with good SEO work might be the answer for you. But you can expect big bucks on your credit card charges. They have to charge more to keep their sales engines running. All those annoying solicitations are people who have to be paid.

If you are a local business and the majority of your sales, if not all, are local, then it probably makes sense to use a local web services company. Here are a few reasons to consider.

First, local almost always costs much less than national. There are exceptions of course. Some local web firms have ‘national-itis’ disease, and charge thousands for a site. Big city local firms tend to do that. If you find that to be true in your big city, then look for a web firm outside the big city. You will be shocked to see the difference in pricing.

Secondly, a good local web company will know that local reviews are key to your online success. They will coordinate your site with your SEO strategies and focus on your selling area. Local does not necessarily mean your town only. It can be multiple counties. But even in this case, a local webmaster is going to be even more in tune with your target area than a national firm.

Thirdly, a local web company can be more flexible. Nationals make their money on volume and utilization of the same technologies over and over. Your local guy is going to be more receptive to things that your company stands out for.

And last, but most importantly, a local web company is reachable, especially if you want face-to-face meetings. A reputable web company is keenly aware of its own local reputation and will be very willing to make things look good and work for you. A video conference is better than email or phone, but face-to-face will always be best.

At PARKERTECHGROUP, we base our entire web services portfolio on what we have described in this newsletter. We provide websites for companies in our town and our surrounding counties.

You have heard the phrase “buy local.” It is a good motto for web technologies too.

2024 Christmas Shopping Safety Tips

November 14, 2024

Again, I find myself saying, “where has the year gone?” After a very busy 2024, we are coming into the holiday season. Malls, online shopping, lots of goodies, and perhaps travel, will be on our credit cards in January. As we are out and about, or flipping plastic, it is important to stay safe. Here are some tips that we can consider in order to be safer from scams and criminals.

First, let’s look at online shopping. It’s a big deal. From scammers to porch pirates, we have to be on our guard. Last year, an estimated 250 plus billion dollars were spent online for the holidays. Over 12 billion dollars in porch pirate thefts were recorded in 2023. That is a lot of money. In the USA alone, there were over 460 billion dollars of fraud in 2023.

Before going online to shop, are your computers and phone devices up to date on their operating systems (Windows, Android, etc.)? If not, make sure you update them, which will give you the latest known protections against hacks. Don’t forget to keep your anti-virus software up to date too. If you haven’t done it already, get a malware protection software app too, like Malware Bytes. They have a great free version and a paid version that will catch things like spyware that some anti-virus programs do not.

Be careful where you buy from. Don’t buy from a “store” in an email link. Consider never leaving your credit card information on a store’s database, in case they are hacked. Data breaches are everywhere. Yahoo in 2013, 2014, First American Financial in 2019, Facebook in 2019 is just the tip of the iceberg. And remember to look at the web address you are on (at the top of the screen). If it doesn’t have a https (instead of an http) at the beginning, bail out ASAP! And it is important not to use public WI-FI to make purchases. Your local pizza maker is the best ever, but self-installing a wireless router for his customers is not like making dough!

But let’s turn our attention to shopping in person. Just as with most of the tips above, this series of tips are well known to all. We just need a reminder once in a while, right?

You need to think about how you look to a potential crook. If you are dressed extremely well, wearing expensive jewelry, and distracted with your phone or kids, you may get noticed and watched. Ladies, if you have to carry a purse, secure it. You also need to keep your head on swivel in the parking lots. FBI statistics indicate there are almost 2000 violent crimes every week in parking lots or when walking to a building (stores mostly). Herd mentality is good advice here – shop with other adults when you can. A group is not a good target for most thieves who are looking for soft targets. A parent carrying armloads of gifts is a gift to thieves. Keep yourself free to run or fight.

Try not to use ATM’s, even if it is a drive up. ATMs are watering holes for bad actors. Be sure to have a record of your credit cards at home in case they are stolen or lost. It will speed up the important task of canceling the cards before too much damage is done.

And most importantly, try not to shop at night.

I hope this reminder list of common-sense safety tips is helpful to you and from all the folks at PARKERTECHGROUP, we hope you have a merry and safe Christmas and holiday season this year!

Your Total IT & Web Solutions Provider